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Overclock
Profile Quote: "What's the point of power if you don't use it?" Speed, throughput, power. Overclock is the mental union of a middle-caste chemist, a low-caste beast, and a bottomless thirst for performance. Having left even her original body behind in her quest, her current frame is an MTO that rarely stays the same from one stellar cycle to another as the femme pushes it to higher and higher limits. Vivacious, competitive, and a little cocky from the heady rush of her own systems, she's prone alternately to bouts of impatience and sloth as her fuel levels rise and fall. Skills: Anything for an Upgrade; Knowledge: Chemistry, claw-to-hand combat; Tracking by taste/smell; Honorary Bug; Skills: Matter-to-Energon Fueling; Languages: Wavespeech. Descs Current Desc ("Overclock", 4/17/15-) Overclock is a dark, looming femme made of racing hardware and bestial attachments. Her body is night black with white and purple accents and, while not hulking, there's a definite athleticism to her build. The femme's torso has a pronounced V-taper as her shoulders stretch wide apart to make room for exhaust manifolds on either side of her chest while her waist draw sharply together to hug an armoured radiator that makes up her abdomen. Overlaying her back, sides, and joints are shifting metal plates that sheathe almost-exposed pistons and actuators - an anatomy chart in motion - and vents cover the rest keeping her hungry internals supplied with plenty of air. The longer sections of Overclock's body have a sleekness to them but smaller ones are jagged, giving her an in-between appearance that's neither the stream-lined curve of a racer nor the blocky strength of a labourer and one further overlaid by a chimeric mix of beastformer and even Insecticon traits. Her hands and feet end in sharp claws, the red-eyed head of a large black hound - her alt-mode - serves as her entire chestplate, and her engine growls with a tone that's more feral than mechanical. A long braided-steel tail extends from her lower back but it curls along armoured joints and the plates that shift across her body are rounded and chitinous. In the center of her helmet where the femme should have a face instead are an opaque red visor and a full face mask. The rebuilt beastformer rumbles with power and radiates with heat, but emits no emotion except through body language and voice. In the dark or under exertion she even glows with waste heat and the smells of spent fuel and hot metal wash from her onto the passing breeze. Current Desc ("Overclock" alt-mode, 4/17/15-) Standing no smaller than her root form, Overclock's alt-mode is a chimeric hound coloured black with white and purple accents. Bestial, brawny, and freely exhausting air through open pipes in her sides, her frame is clearly built for performance but at the same time it seems forged under a mishmash of rules. Chitinous metal plates shift over barely-concealed pistons and actuators and the whole of her body rumbles with the force of her motors, giving her a visage somewhere between beastformer, Insecticon, and racer. The femme's face is expressive if menacing with red lenses and a fanged maw that glows with an inner heat, and a steel-braided tail curls overhead along armoured joints, ending in a stinging point. Not the quietest nor the best cooled Cybertronian, Overclock passively howls with the force of air being sucked through her systems and even idle her barely-covered motors are warm to the touch. In the dark or under exertion, the femme's body even glows with waste heat and after a particularly satiating meal, dark smoke can be seen wafting out her vents. Second Desc ("Bloodhound", 3/8/15-4/17/15) Technical but athletic, broad-shouldered but lithe, ponderous but agile, Spectrum's frame is atypical of both her namesake and her alt-mode. Featuring a broad and fairly boxy chest that dominates her appearance, the femme's scientific roots can be spotted not just in the lack of wings or tires but also in the ergonomic contour of her helmet, the careful rounding of her sides, and the clean white paint that adorns most of her figure. The figure itself and the sharp brown lines that stripe it paint a different picture. At once svelte and sturdy, her waist and limbs narrow sharply in contrast to her chest plates and the joints of her body show just enough reinforcing to support speedy movement without excess weight - and perhaps a little more to be sure. The armor of her arms and legs show more than a passing thought to durability and sharp claws that end each fingertip give the femme a distinctly combative appearance. On her back, a pair of vented boosters fan open and closed, ready to make up for any maneuvering short-comings. Spectrum may have at one point been a scienceformer, but she's clearly been modified to handle the rigors of a more active life. Original Desc ("Scrapheap", 3/4/15 - 3/8/15) Spectrum looks like most other beings living in the Dead End; battered, short on parts, and missing most of her paint. A relatively slender cybertronian of modest height, armor is either completely missing over most of her body or it's been welded back together with scrap too many times to be identifiable. It's hard to tell if she's even a femme and harder still to guess her alt-mode. The left side of her face is scored by plasma and her optic on the same side is cracked, bare circuits and motors are exposed down the length of both arms, and wires can be traced from her chestplate all the way to her knee joints. A rare glimpse of orderly paneling, Spectrum's upper torso seems to be the only part in any real repair. It presents an unflatteringly boxy outline that makes her look even thinner but a pump on its underside hums defiantly with life. Despite the scale of her damages, her critical systems are in deceptively better health; the damaged robot has been getting cut-rate repairs for a long time. Bearings and gaskets are still functionally clean and even if her inner workings are exposed, they're still working; her gait, while the slow, ponderous pace endemic to empties, is smooth; and a large blade swings at her side as she walks. It's a piece of loose metal that's been welded directly to the last bit of paneling on her right arm and sharpened to a usable edge - an improvised weapon at best but by no means harmless. Relationships History Backstory A million years ago, Functionism declared Spectrum's alt-mode destined him for a Middle-caste life as a scientist and researcher. In this lot he lived in quiet comfort and readily immersed himself in his work analyzing, categorizing, and correlating innumerable materials. His lab served indiscriminately to process anything from synthetic inventions and chemicals to forensic work and it was his particular talent for the latter that would get him into trouble. While himself a functionist, Spectrum's senior within the lab - a cybertronian named Chromate who was both his mentor and role model - was privately anti-functionist and criminally involved. For his part, Chromate was more than happy to promote his student's talents in forensics while quietly falsifying his reports to impede investigations and research. He was almost quietly enough. Only a few millennia into his assignment, Spectrum found himself accosted by police as he and his mentor were walking home. The exchange was sudden, bewildering, and panic-inducing for the young Cybertronian, and before the night was over it found Chromate dead - shot fleeing - and Spectrum himself hiding in the smallest hole he could find. At a loss for why he was wanted but unwilling to find out, the scientist abandoned his home and traveled further and further from the comfort of his familiar setting while trying, unsuccessfully, to apply his lab knowledge to avoid leaving a trail. His misapplied logic lead Spectrum to the dirties, most down-trodden, and probably most dangerous sector in the area - the Dead End. Finally cornered, he would have suffered a violent and ignoble death if not for the gruesome intervention of a beastformer criminal named Bloodhound. An aged former member of the Primal Vanguard, Sergeant Bloodhound was a bitter and volatile femme who never quite adapted to life after the Vanguard. The constant exploration and new encounters were all she wanted from life and she strongly resisted the military's decline and dissolution. For her protests she was cast out and the disgraced disposable spent the Interregnum living a primal existence feeding off empties while the established order collapsed and was rebuilt into the current government. Despite or perhaps because of the scientist's quirks, she took pity on Spectrum and taught him the rudiments of survival in Cybertron's neglected slums. Over time the two developed a rapport and even progressed to neural interfacing. Over the course of countless connections, Spectrum's more flamboyant manners were muffled and much of his weaker mind became subsumed by Bloodhound's. This had the benefit of imparting the wealth of the old soldier's training and experience, though it also imparted her gender. Unfortunately it was not to last and Bloodhound's old and slowly failing frame was finally turned to scrap after a theft of energon gone wrong. In a complete break from the death of her mentor a lifetime ago, Bloodhound's death fell upon Spectrum gently. Despite the matching violence of her end, the loss she felt was utilitarian; Bloodhound's was their preferred body for its verve, the more fun one, and Spectrum felt herself stuck with second best. In defiance of her perceived incompleteness, Spectrum set herself to upgrading her scientific frame to equal the beastformer she'd lost. In practice of course she had few resources and little experience in frame engineering, leaving her changes more cosmetic than functional. Seeking a solution in spite of her criminal status, Spectrum knew she'd need a mechanic skilled enough to perform military upgrades, as Bloodhound had a military frame if an aged one; a way to ingratiate one with service or shanix; and a way to find one who would do all of this illegally. As she was never particularly wealthy nor trusting of anyone who would do an illegal reformat for coins, the answer became obvious. Spectrum needed a mechanic with a loyalty she could rely on and a shared loyalty could be used as her currency. Enter her search for the Decepticons, the most likely criminal group in her mind to have the mix of brains and bearings she needed. Sentinel Age Spectrum saved up enough shanix to leave the Dead End, with help from free repairs by Pharma, and got to know the competing ideologies of the day. She determined in short order that while she liked the Decepticon ideal she didn't trust them as far as she could throw Buzzsaw. After meeting Pharma, she didn't trust the Autobots at all... A chance encounter with Soundwave as her recruiter lead at first cautiously to a friendship. By the end of the age with Sentinel dead by Megatron, the blue carrier was counted as Spectrum's only friend and the only mech she trusted besides. As the curtain closed with war brewing, she snuck off to Stanix to complete a deal with Scorn that traded Detour's identity for a new frame. Zeta Age Overclock was hatched during the later years of Zeta's reign as a de facto member of Cybertron's largest surface hive. She wasted no time in integrating into life with her fellow bugs, subordinate to Scorn (her queen) and Kickback (a leading seeder), but just as quickly displayed a penchant for rash behaviour and over-estimating the capabilities of her own frame. Nyon's obliteration was a megavolt shock to the young femme's systems that disabused her of any belief in Zeta's righteousness as Prime and lead Overclock directly to the Decepticons. Together with a near-scrapping from Hun-Grr, it also helped to foster a growing sense of inadequacy and incompleteness in the young Insecticon, which has already begun to lead her down a strange path. Now a proud member andsomewhat uncomfortably) Shockwave's direct subordinate, Overclock is ready to put her skills to use however she can in the times ahead - while keeping one optic open for chances to improve herself in the process. Gallery MS Paint Fun Cook Kirby by Cheese is tasty.png|Spectrum on a normal day in the Dead End (@2010-2015 Cheese-is-tasty) Overclock.jpg|On some days Overclock just can't be bothered to wear her armor (©2011-2015 mazenahmed)|link=http://mazenahmed.deviantart.com/art/Hot-Rod-Hemi-Engine-WIP-201329445 Sheet Overclock (v3, Blame Scorn) Bloodhound (v2, Blame Pharma) Spectrum (v1) Logs